Officials' causes, your cash

Holiday parties, benefit dinners and cash for their favorite charities: Elected officials in Flint and Genesee County are literally giving away your tax money.

And their generosity adds up to more than $60,000 in less than three years, The Flint Journal found.

Every year, members of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners get $2,000 each and Flint City Council members receive $1,500 each in special accounts they use for charitable - and often politically savvy - donations.

"In tightening county budgets and municipal budgets, how can you justify it?" said state Rep. David B. Robertson, R-Grand Blanc Twp.

Officials largely defend the accounts as a way to fulfill important needs of residents who often have nowhere else to turn.

"The organizations that once were strong and vibrant, now they are gone," said City Councilman Kerry Nelson. "You know you can't do it all, but you try to do as much as you can."

County commissioners call them youth activities funds and have used them for everything from supporting 4-H's Youth Citizenship Academy (more than $12,000 over the past five years) to helping parochial school students jet off for a class trip to Rome ($450).

In the Flint City Council, they're called ward accounts, and they've been used to pay for flowers at a funeral ($50.50) and help throw several Christmas parties.

Among other examples The Flint Journal found:

• County commissioners gave a total of $825 to a Burton girl planning a trip to Orlando, Fla., to compete in a "sweetheart" pageant.
• City Councilman Scott Kincaid plopped down $800 to sponsor a table at the IMA Children's Recreation Fund "Salute to John Cherry," honoring the lieutenant governor from Vienna Township.
• City Councilwoman Jackie Poplar spent $566 to throw a Christmas party in 2005, giving away hot dogs, hats and gloves. Last year, she spent $250 on McDonald's gift certificates to give as Christmas presents to children in her ward.
• Commissioner Raynetta Speed, a board member of McCree Theatre, spent $410 to buy season tickets to the McCree Theatre to be given away by the Riverpark Tenant Council.

The Journal reviewed records, sometimes through a Freedom of Information Act request. They covered the past five years at the county and three at the city (dating back to the state financial takeover).

The vast majority of contributions go to nonprofit organizations, from block clubs to the Boys and Girls Club.

The funds are usually doled out in small increments - $50 here, $100 there - and represent a small amount of overall budgets that run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

There have been efforts at both the city and county to do away with the funds. Some have even been successful - at least temporarily - but they keep coming back.

Each year, politicians themselves decide their budgets and how much will be in the accounts. Budget shortfalls loom in both the county and city budgets, but there are no proposals to cut funds for these accounts.

What's in it for them

While taxpayers pick up the tab for the giveaways, the politicians themselves usually get the credit and bask in the voting public's gratitude.

Most Flint City Council members specifically ask to be notified when checks are ready so they personally can deliver them.

Requests for donations often spell out what the official will get in return: dinner with several hundred potential voters at an organization's fundraising events, advertisements in brochures distributed to supporters, names splayed on the back of T-shirts given to children, sometimes even an advertisement in the newspaper.

All of that can bring increased name recognition with voters.

"It's key to your re-election, to have people know who you are and feel warm and fuzzy about it. It is the goal of every elected official, myself included," said Leon Drolet, who heads the low-tax group Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. A Macomb County commissioner and former state representative, he said he does not support the funds.

Poplar said she tries only to put smiles on people's faces with the expenditures.

"I don't feel in my heart that it's politicking. It's helping somebody," said Poplar, who said the Christmas presents she bought went to children who might not have gotten any other gifts. "(The fund) gives us a chance to give back to the community."

Poplar isn't the only one throwing parties. Nelson also hosted a Halloween party, shelling out $149.93 for candy. Several other officeholders also gave donations toward holiday parties.

Many also appeared to use the accounts to buy tickets to dinners and fundraisers hosted by nonprofit organizations.

Kincaid, who spent more than half his ward account to help the City Council sponsor a table at a dinner saluting Cherry, said the money's final destination was the IMA Children's Recreation Fund. The IMA maintains parks in his 9th Ward and throughout the city.

Kincaid has spent less of his ward money than any other council member so far this fiscal year.

"As elected officials, we are asked to go to a wide range of events. It takes a lot out of our personal time," said Flint City Council President Darryl Buchanan. "This is a way to take some of the financial hardship out of a part-time job that you put full-time work into."

Buchanan spent his ward account money to support block clubs, buy food baskets for the needy and donate to an annual Christmas party. All but $10 was spent before the fiscal year was half over and before he faced a Feb. 27 recall effort, which voters defeated.

Mayor Don Williamson noted that the City Council sets Flint's budget, including ward accounts.

"There is a strong possibility I would handle it differently," Williamson said.

Helping their causes

Many officials also give taxpayer funds generously to organizations they are a part of. Several gave to programs at their churches.

City Councilwoman Carolyn Sims gave $750 to her previous employer, the Consortium on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Former County Commissioner Ted Hammon, now a state representative, gave to at least three organizations of which he is a board member.

"The money goes directly back 100 percent to the taxpayers, and more pointedly it goes back to youth. I've never had a problem with it," Hammon said.

The donations of tax money come on top of dollars officials often give out of their own pocket, said Nelson, whose expenditures included flowers sent to a constituent's funeral.

"I wish there was more money. I get requests all the time," Speed said.

The single largest benefactor, looking at all officials' donations, was 4-H's Youth Citizenship Academy: It got more than $12,000 over the past five years.

The program, jointly operated by the Genesee County MSU Extension office and the county board, engages young people in politics and current events. It's an example of how the tax dollars can make a positive impact, said David J. Fenech, director of the county extension office.

"This is a program we're pretty proud of," Fenech said. "I believe that this is certainly an appropriate use of money."

County board Chairman Archie Bailey once opposed the youth activity funds because he considered them "slush funds" for the elected officials.

He led the charge in 2003 to have them eliminated, but they were voted back in a year later.

Bailey said he is now convinced the funds serve an important purpose, especially in the county's poorer areas.

"The amount of money is minimal based on the good that it does," Bailey said.